London gets screwed

Nowadays we're used to London being treated better than the rest of the UK. (Transport is a great example.) It's one of the reasons the country is in such a mess. But on the eve of WW I, it was London feeling disadvataged by new licence duties.

The 1909 Budget caused massive political unrest. Which ultimately led to reform of the House of Lords, when it was voted down by that house.  The Liberal government's proposals, conceived by chancellor David Lloyd George were quite progressive, introducing the first bits of the welfare state. Things like old age pensions. But they needed to be pais for.

One of the areas wher enew revenue was to be raised was from the drinks industry. But this time it wasn't to come from an increase in the tax on beer. Instead, licences were to be the source. Specifically brewing licences and pub licences.

"London and High Licences.
The National Trade Defence Association have issued a statement pointing out the eifect of the proposed licence duties in the administrative County of London, an area in which the Chancellor admits that the gross annual values on which the duties are to be paid approximate to the real values. The following figures are quoted, drawn from “Licensed Premises, 1909,” Return No. 1,255, May 7th, 1909, issued by the London County Council:—

FUTURE DUTIES.
Public-houses (4,742), gross annual value	£1,576,266
Take, according to the Finance Bill, 50 per gross annual value per cent. of this value	£788,133
Beerhouses (1,715), gross annual value	£145,593
Take, according to the Finance Bill, one-third of this value	£48,531
Total Future Duties	£836,664

PRESENT DUTIES.
Public-houses (4,742) at an average gross annual value of £332 would pay an average licence duty of £40	£189,680
Beerhouses (1,715): (537 at £4 and 1,178 at £3 10s.)	£6,271
Total Present Duties	£195,931
Therefore the future duties will exceed the present duties by	£640,713

Brewers' Journal, vol. 45, 1909, pages 413 - 414.

The average licence fee of a London fully-licensed was going to rise from £40 a year to £166.20 - a more than fourfold increase.  To put that into perspective, a pint of Mild cost 2d in the public bar. Assuming a generous 1d per pint profit for the publican, that's around 40,000 pints that would need to be sold just to pay for the licence. Or slightly more than 2.5 barrels per week.

The result of the new rules would leave London paying a disproportionate amount of the increase. Why? Because the new licence rate was based on the rateable value of the pub and those values were much higher in London than elsewhere.  Partly becasuse in London the rateable value was close to the rent which could be realistically obtained for the premises. While in most of the country the rateable value was a nominal sum.

Which meant London publicans got doubly screwed. Once, because property prices were high in London and again because the rateable values were high.

"The population in the administrative County of London is one-tenth of that of the United Kingdom.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer (the statement proceeds) in his Budget statement said that he expected to get an additional £2,600,000 from his new licence duties and his new brewers“ licences. Deducting £630,000 for brewers' licences and for duties to be levied on licensed premises other than public-houses and beerhouses, we have £2,000,000 as the additional amount to be obtained from the public-houses and the beerhouses of the United Kingdom. One-tenth of this sum is £230,000; instead of that, the administrative County of London will be called upon to pay £640,000. In the year ending March 31st, 1908, the yield of the licence duties was £2,222,359, from which must deducted the receipts for duties levied on licensed premises other than public-houses and beerhouses, and out of the total so reduced the administrative County of London paid £195,951, or approximately one-tenth of the whole.

The result may be summarised as follows:— London will pay a sum at least four times as large as the licence duties at the present time, and more than three times as large as the just share of the increased duties which should fall on London, measured either by population or by its share of the licence duties paid hitherto, and this in a district where the price of beer charged by the brewer is exceptionally low. These figures reveal such a startling inequality in the treatment of London that it is impossible to think that it can be left unredressed."
Brewers' Journal, vol. 45, 1909, pages 413 - 414.

I found this statement of note "the price of beer charged by the brewer is exceptionally low". That's not something that could be said of London nowadays.

UK brewing 1938 - 1949

WW II was a challenging time for British brewers, though, due to a variety of factors, not nearly as difficult as WW I.

The biggest difference was that, unlike in WW I, beer production was maintained at it pre-war level.  Even in terms of standard barrels, which take the OG of the beer out of the equation. In terms of bulk barrels, production actually increased by 25%.

The difference between the two wars was due to a variety of factors. Better preparation, an assumption that the war would last several years, and controlling food supply right from the outset meant that raw materials were never in as short supply. But another important factor was the more sympathetic approach of the government. In WW I the authorities had been positively hostile to the industry.

At first glance it might seem odd that imports held up so well during WW II. In WW I, imports had dwindled to zero. But it’s all about Ireland, which in 1939 was an independent country. But still supplying large quantities of beer to the UK. Imports during the war years were almost exclusively from Ireland. And the vast majority of it a single beer, Guinness Extra Stout.

There was one thing which suffered: the strength of beer, which dropped by almost 20%. Average gravity would never return to its level of 1939, settling down at around 1037º in 1951. Where it remained for the next forty years.  It was one of the most long-lasting effects of the war.

Beer production and consumption, which both fared well during the war, weren’t so lucky during the peace. They fell all through the 1950s and only got back to their 1948 level in 1961.  Falling demand was one of the factors behind the large scale rationalisation in the 1950s.

UK brewing 1938 - 1949
Year	Production (bulk barrels)	Production (standard barrels)	Consumption (bulk barrels)	Exports (bulk barrels)	Imports (bulk barrels)	Average OG
1938	24,205,631	18,055,539	25,087,393	281,284	1,163,046	1041.02
1939	24,674,992	18,364,156	25,229,287	283,974	838,269	1040.93
1940	25,366,782	18,738,619	25,922,694	266,766	822,678	1040.62
1941	26,203,803	18,351,113	26,768,038	225,552	789,787	1038.51
1942	29,860,796	19,294,605	30,813,374	94,796	1,047,374	1035.53
1943	29,296,672	18,293,919	30,027,441	107,019	837,788	1034.34
1944	30,478,289	19,193,773	30,973,081	77,597	572,389	1034.63
1945	31,332,852	19,678,449	31,968,011	130,443	765,602	1034.54
1946	32,650,200	20,612,225	33,391,810	187,418	929,028	1034.72
1947	29,261,398	17,343,690	30,011,879	109,680	860,161	1032.59
1948	30,408,634	18,061,390	31,067,391	205,098	863,855	1032.66
1949	26,990,144	16,409,937	27,611,545	254,147	875,548	1033.43
change 1938 - 1949	11.50%	-9.11%	10.06%	-9.68%	-24.74%	-18.50%
Source:
Brewers' Almanack 1955, pages 50 and 57.

Let's Brew Wednesday - 1900 Amsdell Winter XX

In a change from the usual plain fare of UK recipes, here's one from the famous brewing town of Albany, New York. And fitting in with March as Mild month, it's a Mild recipe. How wacky is that - a genuine US Mild recipe?

X Ales were one of the mainstays of American Ale breweries in the 19th century. With their origin obviously lying with English X Ales.

The term Mild Ale doesn’t seem to have been used much in the USA. “Present Use”, a slightly old-fashioned term in the UK by 1900, was used to signify the same thing. But mostly they were just called Ales. Usually XX or XXX, for some reason. X Ale, the most popular Ale in England, doesn’t seem to have been a thing in the USA. Probably just breweries bigging up their Ales.

Amsdell’s XX has about the same gravity as a London X Ale of 1900, though the bitterness is a bit lower. (Refer back to 1899 Barclay Perkins X for a full comparison. I can’t be arsed to do it for you.)

The grist has the same ingredients as usual as Amsdell. Except there’s also a little black malt, presumably for colour. It doesn’t specify where it was added, so it could have been in the copper. Where it would have added more colour than in the mash. What was added in the copper was 20 lbs of salt. Which is slightly less than an eighth of an ounce for a recipe of the size below.

1900 Amsdell Winter XX
pale malt	8.25 lb	65.32%
grits	4.00 lb	31.67%
black malt	0.05 lb	0.40%
glucose	0.33 lb	2.61%
Cluster 30 mins	2.25 oz
OG	1056
FG	1022
ABV	4.5
Apparent attenuation	60.71%
IBU	31
SRM	6
Mash at	156º F
Sparge at	170º F
Boil time	30 minutes
pitching temp	58º F
Yeast	WLP051 California V

This recipe is one of many North American ones in my outstanding collection of historic recipes:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/ronald-pattinson/lets-brew/paperback/product-23289812.html

UK Beer Imports during WW II

Before WW I, beer imports into the UK were at a very low level – just 50,000 barrels in 1910.   This figure shot up, however to 1.3 million barrels in 1924.   There was a very simple reason for this sudden massive increase: Irish independence. Over 95% of imports were a single beer, Guinness Extra Stout.

As you can see in the table below, little had changed by the time WW II kicked off.  Much as before the first war, imports from the rest of the world remained at a meagre 50,000 barrels or so. Judging by the main sources of these imports – Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands – it’s safe to assume most of this was Lager.

All of the countries from which the UK imported any quantity of beer (other than the Republic of Ireland) were in Axis hands during the war. So it’s pretty obvious they wouldn’t be supplying any beer for the duration.

Sadly, I don’t have figures for the source of imports during the war years. However, I do have the numbers for total Irish exports. Adjusting these to strip out Foreign Extra Stout and using the OG of Guinness to convert standard barrels to bulk barrels, I can come up with a reasonable estimate of Irish imports. And it matches very closely to the total volume of imports. Not that that should be any great surprise.

The fall in imports from Ireland in 1943 and 1944 is as a result of a dispute between the Republic of Ireland and the UK. In late 1943, in order to force the UK government to export more grain to Ireland, the Irish government banned the export of beer. The UK caved in, fearing what would happen in Northern Ireland where the vast majority of beer sold was from the Republic. Almost all in the form of Guinness.

After the war, imports picked up pretty much where they had left off. The only exception being Germany, from which no beer was imported until 1953.  Lack of availability would have been one of the main reasons. In the immediate post-war years the occupying powers severely restricted brewing in Germany. The British, for example, only allowed brewing for UK troops stationed in Germany.

UK Beer imports 1936 - 1951
Country of Origin	1936	1937	1938	1950	1951
Irish Republic	1,380,343	1,256,212	836,624	1,031,159	1,025,902
Other British Countries	128	121	108	22	31
Total from British Countries	1,380,471	1,256,333	836,732	1,031,181	1,025,933
Denmark	17,867	22,560	25,459	17,686	23,058
Germany	16,953	18,669	18,813	-	-
Netherlands	8,824	9,143	8,708	2,685	3,492
Belgium	128	705	821	700	1,150
Czechoslovakia	3,806	3,882	3,810	915	903
Other Foreign Countries	241	180	278	224	1,703
Total from Foreign Countries	47,819	55,139	57,895	22,110	30,306
Total Bulk Barrels	1,428,290	1,311,472	894,627	1,053,291	1,056,239
Source:
“1955 Brewers' Almanack”, page 60.

Guinness Extra Stout exports to the UK 1939 - 1943
Years ended 31st March	1939	1940	1941	1942	1943
Irish Exports: Standard barrels	770,562	789,864	767,209	905,165	691,275
FES Exports: Standard barrels	17,639	18,810	17,630	9,847	13,864
Exports Extra Stout	752,923	771,054	749,579	895,318	677,411
Extra Stout OG	1055	1053	1048	1047	1046
Irish Exports: bulk barrels	752,923	800,150	858,893	1,047,712	809,947
UK imports	838,269	822,678	789,787	1,047,374	837,788
Sources:
“1955 Brewers' Almanack”, page 60.
“1955 Brewers' Almanack”, pages 107 - 110.

Guinness Extra Stout exports to the UK 1944 - 1947
Years ended 31st March	1944	1945	1946	1947
Irish Exports: Standard barrels	483,031	661,674	802,122	676,485
FES Exports: Standard barrels	22,660	19,939	15,338	29,974
Exports Extra Stout	460,371	641,735	786,784	646,511
Extra Stout OG	1046	1046	1046	1042
Irish Exports: bulk barrels	550,444	767,292	940,720	846,621
UK imports	572,389	765,602	929,028	860,161
Sources:
“1955 Brewers' Almanack”, page 60.
“1955 Brewers' Almanack”, pages 107 - 110.

Dublin Porter Shipments to Great Britain 1905 - 1908

Guinness's dominationof Irish brewing is nothing new. Especially when it comes to Stout. Though there may have been Dublin rivals, they were brewing on a far smaller scale than Guinness.

For one simple reason: Guinness had penertrated the British market. Which meant they had a massively larger potential customer base than if their operations had been limited to Ireland.

Dublin Porter Shipments to Great Britain 1905 - 1908
Brewery	1905	1906	1907	1908
Guinness & Co.	604,818	650,981	670,503	687,486
Watkins, Jameson & Co.	38,544	39,482	36,542	36,176
D'Arcy & Son	23,493	27,789	23,472	21,947
Mountjoy Brewery	30,498	29,562	27,513	25,523
Other shippers	228	0	0	22,835
Total	697,581	747,813	758,030	793,965
Source:
The Brewers' Journal, vol. 45, 1909, page 8.

Shipments to Britain from the other three other Dublin breweries were declining while those of Guinness were increasing. Eventually the trade of the other breweries would dwindle to nothing.

As you can see in the more detailed table below, in 1908 about a third of Gunness sales were in Great Britaion, the other two thirds in Ireland. When WW I erupted, the proportion shipped to Britain had increased to 40%. It increased even further after WW I, exceeding 50% in 1920.

Though even in 1904 Guinness was selling more Extra Stout in Britain than in Ireland, where the majority of their sales was in the form of Porter. Guinness actively discouraged the shipment of its Porter to Britain because they were afraid of it being passed off as Extra Stout. At this point Extra Stout had an OG of 1075º and Porter 1060º.

Guinness sales 1904 - 1914
	Extra Stout		Porter		other	totals
Year	Britain	Ireland	Britain	Ireland	total	Britain	Ireland	FES/Export	total
1904	584,598	494,949	1,375	849,883	74,980	585,973	1,344,832	74,980	2,005,785
1905	601,553	503,096	1,538	858,243	97,520	603,091	1,361,339	97,520	2,061,950
1906	643,878	509,573	1,572	857,919	113,204	645,450	1,357,492	113,204	1,482,268
1907	678,902	521,583	1,137	858,433	116,459	680,039	1,380,016	116,459	2,176,514
1908	695,562	531,337	963	859,977	100,799	696,525	1,391,314	100,799	2,188,638
1909	706,229	560,104	810	879,584	115,596	707,039	1,439,688	115,596	2,262,323
1910	782,281	593,459	1,231	901,660	135,860	783,512	1,495,119	135,860	2,414,491
1911	825,604	616,099	1,738	913,439	146,242	827,342	1,529,536	146,242	2,503,122
1912	913,659	674,868	556	926,592	157,880	914,215	1,601,460	157,880	2,673,555
1913	1,022,077	736,563	276	930,173	139,150	1,022,353	1,666,735	139,150	2,828,243
1914	1,070,814	731,511	116	897,455	141,844	1,070,930	1,628,965	141,844	2,642,740
Source:
"A Bottle of Guinness please" by David Hughes, pages 276-279

Numbers, eh? What could be more fun? Yes, obviously certain things people do in private without clothes. but otherwise, what can beat the existential thrill of scraping back the dirt to reveal a fresh number hoard? And can I come up with a paragraph containing more question marks?

UK Beer Exports 1937 - 1949

Between the wars UK beer exports trundled along at between 200,000 and 350,000 barrels  annually. Which was about half the level it had been pre-WW I, when 500,000 to 650,000 barrels were exported each year.

Clearly the war was going to have an impact on exports. Especially as one of the main destination for UK exports, Belgium, had been occupied by the Germans.  In addition, German U-boats made shipping anything across the Atlantic a dangerous enterprise. And in the early phases of the war British shipping in the Mediterranean was susceptible to German or Italian attacks from the air. Plus most shipping capacity was reserved for war material or essential items, such as food.

Given all these negative factors, it’s no shock that beer exports shrank considerably in the early years of the war:

Belgium appears to have been receiving supplies if British beer right up until the Germans invaded. The trade didn’t resume until a couple of years after war’s end. The quantity of beer going to British colonies dried to a trickle between 1942 and 1944. 

Exports hit a nadir in 1942, a year when the war was only just starting turn in the Allies’ favour.

Not all the export markets were as large after the war as they had been before. India and the Straits Settlements, for example, were taking less than half the beer they had done pre-war. In the case of India, this was doubtless due to the withdrawal of British troops and administrators after independence in 1947. Belgium, on the other hand, imported similar quantities as pre-war. While more beer was shipped to the West Indies after the war than before it.

In the 1950s, UK exports stabilised at around 250,000 barrels a year – similar to what they had been in 1939. Though the destinations changed, as the British Empire slowly withered away and with it the former colonial markets.

UK beer exports by destination 1937 - 1943
Destination	1937	1939	1940	1941	1942	1943
Egypt	12,960	26,597	28,857	28,519	3,658	45
Irish Free State	119,763	52,081	35,306	25,843	16,730	14,810
British W. Africa	9,432	12,468	13,873	22,328	15,544	19,161
India & Straits Settlements	75,349	63,186	69,963	62,260	11,523	638
Brit. West India	10,298	10,925	8,499	8,081	5,082	6,629
Belgium	40,637	29,140	13,080
Other Countries	72,318	89,577	97,188	78,521	42,259	65,736
Total	340,757	283,974	266,766	225,552	94,796	107,019
Source:
Brewers' Almanack 1955, page 57.

UK beer exports by destination 1944 - 1949
Destination	1944	1945	1946	1947	1948	1949
Egypt	4,804	2,966	12,536	12,709	7,587	6,999
Irish Free State	4,878	128	221	3,280		6,201
British W. Africa	10,225	1,190	1,574	5,797		34,626
India & Straits Settlements	2,506	38,333	69,278	8,130	27,538	27,750
Brit. West India	1,701	7	251	1,045		14,009
Belgium						33,786
Other Countries	53,483	78,732	97,860	71,642	169,973	130,756
Total	77,597	130,443	187,418	109,680	205,098	254,127
Source:
Brewers' Almanack 1955, page 57.

Let's Brew - 1867 Barclay Perkins XXX Ale

A very special treat today. A Mild worthy of March or May. Or even Middlemarch.

Because this is a beer specifically mentioned by George Eliot in one of her essays:

"German ennui must be something as superlative as Barclay's treble X, which, we suppose, implies an extremely unknown quantity of stupefaction."

I think it's safe to assume that the beer she means in Barclay Perkins XXX. For which I obviously have several brewing records. Including this lovely one from 1867.

By this point Barclay Perkins was no longer the largest brewery in the world, but it remained huge by the standards of the day. In 1867 it brewed 423,444 barrels, and was second in London after Truman, which brewed an impressive 554,955 barrels that year.*

You probably won't be surprised to learn that this was Barclay's strongest Mild Ale. It is a pretty powerful beer. Though not one that was around much longer: it was discontinued sometime in the 1870s. If I'd got my arse in gear and photographed the records between 1870 and 1880, I'd be able to give you a more precise date. But I didn't so I can't.

There's not much to the recipe: one type of pale malt and Mid-Kent hops from the 1866 harvest. A shitload of hops. I've knocked down the quantity a little for the recipe. But, as this was brewed in March 1867, the hops were pretty fresh.




* "The British Brewing Industry, 1830-1980" T. R. Gourvish & R.G. Wilson, pages 610-611.

1867 Barclay Perkins XXX Ale
pale malt	21.00 lb	100.00%
Goldings 75 mins	4.00 oz
Goldings 60 mins	4.00 oz
Goldings 30 mins	4.00 oz
OG	1093
FG	1034
ABV	7.81
Apparent attenuation	63.44%
IBU	132
SRM	9
1st Mash at	153º F
2nd Mash at	159º F
Sparge at	188º F
Boil time	75 minutes
pitching temp	62º F
Yeast	Wyeast 1099 Whitbread Ale

Porcine excrement

Here's an extract from my much-neglected anthology of child torture. Sorry, travels with my infant sons. I would call them little bastards, but they resemble me in far too many ways.

The little bastards, sorry kids, have challenged me to shift more than ten copies of "Can We Go Home Now?" Maybe this extract will persuade you to help me win:

Lemmy's Biercafé
"What do you want?"
"A bacon and egg sandwich."
"A restraining order."
"A pint of Mild."

They didn't have any of these. But the orders did range from the unrealistic to the fantastic.

I'm sitting on a separate table to the kids. It works better that way if I want to write. I would complain of the kids spoiling the day with their antics. In reality, they've given loads of material. What's more important - fun or good material? You know the answer.

You want a description? Alright, brown café, corner location, some sort of music theme. They're playing - and have photos of - early 70's music stars. Is this life on Mars? Musically, yes. Brown wood, board floor. I'm bored. Chairman of the bored. There's a noticeable lack of Iggy here.

"I told you we'd have fun." I always say that. Luckily, today it was true. The kids love the idea of somewhere that invites mess. You're expected to throw your peanut shells on the floor. It's a big hit. I'm as happy as a porcine animal in excrement. They shut up and are just are revelling in litter. Perfect. Whisky time for dad.

Mmm. Maybe that's not such a greeat advert. Not sure what sort of day I was having then.

Want to discover more of my fatherly failings? Buy the effing book. Though I prefer to call them eccenticities rather than failings. But that doesn't alliterate. Unlike buy books.

Girls Get Public House Habit

One of the features of WW II that I like is how the temperance twats carried on much as they had in WW I. But they were completel;y ignored by the authorities.

They held meetings, passed resolutions, wrote letters to newspapers. All to zero effect. It must have been quite disheartening. It almost makes you feel sorry for them. Almost.

Women drinking had been a particular obsession of these twats, as it had been in the 19th century. In fact, moral outrage at females daring to enjoy a drink lasts to this day amongst the scummier elements of the British press. Which is pretty hypocritical, given what a bunch of pissheads journalists are.

"GIRLS GET “PUBLIC HOUSE HABIT”
Our young people are getting into the public-house habit.” declared the Rev. Walter Steele, of Consett, at the annual Synod of the Sunderland and Durham district of the Methodist Church at Sunderland yesterday.

The matter was creating great concern, he said, as every night one sees crowds of girls in public-houses. A conductress of a bus actually ordered a pint in one to begin with. Mostly they are very voting people and what are we to do? 

"These are the days of increased wages, but when the milk bars are closed, and the cafes offering very little, and they find two nights of dancing sufficient, well, they are a loose end.

"I have,” he added, been talking to some friends whose daughters are in the Forces.

Their reports are very distressing. One girl told that every night in her hut at least two girls were drunk, and she had to hide her valuables under her pillow for fear they were stolen.

"Another girl in the Wrens said some of the girls did not arrive until very late, and four of them who were drunk said they had spent the greater part of the night on a ship.

”It is a serious position, yet our present Government goes out of its way to encourage brewers to push forward their trade. Lord Woolton’s speech in the House of Lords was amazing.”

CALL TO GOVERNMENT
He moved a resolution urging the Government to take the necessary steps to reduce the manufacture of alcoholic drinks, which destroyed barley and sugar.

The Rev. J. H. J, Barker (Thompson Memorial Hall. Sunderland) said he made it his business to visit a number of public houses every Saturday night, and there he saw girls of scarcely legal age drinking.

"As a Methodist Church we are letting our Bands of Hope and temperance societies slide,” complained the Rev. William Armstrong (Chester-le-Street).

Alderman Bloomfield asserted that gambling ought to be dealt with by the churches, instancing raffles.

The motion was carried.

Motions urging the Government to reduce the number of days allowed for horse and dog racing, and against the sacredness of the Sabbath being affected Home Guard and A.T.C.s being called upon to train on a Sunday morning were also adopted.

At a private session a resolution moved by the Rev. Prank Spencer (Sunderland) and adopted by a large majority, expressed the Synod’s strong conviction that the hopes and aspirations now being cherished for a better national and international life can only realised as they are the expression of the Christian spirit and of Christian principles."
Newcastle Journal - Thursday 14 May 1942, page 4.

There's some great sexist crap in there. Fancy a woman daring to order a pint? And weaselly phrases like "girls of scarcely legal age drinking". That is, women who were over 18 and as free as adult men to indulge in the odd drink or two.

Why did they keep banging on about women so much? Because it was easier to provoke moral outrage.  Complaining about soldiers or sailors drinking, I'm sure they realised, was much less likely to be accepted by the general public.

This was the swansong of the first set of temperance lunatics. They still behaved as if it still had the ear of the government, when it had long since stopped paying attention to their counterproductive demands.

Brewing beer does not destroy barley and sugar. The beer produced from these ingredients retains almost all their food value. This is one of the great - and oft repeated - temperance lies.